By Rick Platt
Now that Ed Moran has moved to northern Virginia, Bryce Livingston and Blaine O’Reilly, along with triathlete Adam Otstot, are the two fastest road racers in Williamsburg who don’t currently compete for William and Mary. Last November Livingston ran 1:10:05 and O’Reilly 1:10:50 at the Richmond Half Marathon. In August Livingston won the Vineyards 5K in 15:37, with O’Reilly third in 15:42. Livingston also had a 52:20 at October’s Army 10 miler.
But sometimes Livingston and O’Reilly, two West Point graduates who share a townhouse in New Town and are stationed at Fort Eustis, run for more than the competition, more than their own personal best times. That happened the first weekend in May where the two participated in the Virginia Run for the Fallen, a four-day, 236-mile relay from Fort Story in Virginia Beach to a final ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery, and went through Hampton, Yorktown and Gloucester en route. Livingston logged more miles than he’s ever done in four days, a total of 117, and called it “an incredible experience.”
The Run for the Fallen was organized by the “Honor and Remember” group, founded by George Lutz of Chesapeake, whose son George “Tony” Lutz died from a sniper’s bullet in Iraq in 2005. The relay runners stopped at every mile marker to honor a specific individual who was lost in service to our country, with family members of the fallen honored at those mile marks, and there to greet the runners.
There was a core team of about 17 runners, with Williamsburg’s Jay Outen joining forces with Livingston and O’Reilly. There were rotations with shifts of two miles at a time, rotating non-stop for 12 hours each day. Some did more, including Livingston, who ran 35, 31, 27 then 24 miles for the four days, an average of 29 miles per day (a marathon is 26.2 miles). O’Reilly’s distance totals were 30, 17, 15 and 23 miles, for a total of 85 miles. The pace was consistently between 8:00 and 9:30 per mile, not hard on Livingston’ endurance, but the pounding on his legs took a tool.
“I tweaked my knee a bit,” said Livingston, who continued, “I was too stubborn to back off though. A minor knee injury is a very small price to pay to those we honored. At every mile we stopped and saluted a fallen service member. We read their name, branch of service, and date of death. The family members were present at most of the mile markers, and facing them was more difficult than any run I've ever done. Each night we read the names of those we ran for that day. At Arlington, we read all 300+ names (because there were more names than miles, sadly). The entire experience was emotionally exhausting but I am honored to be able to express my appreciation the best way I can, through running.”
Another ultramarathon event took place that weekend, the Singletrack Maniac 50K Trail Run at Freedom Park in Williamsburg, organized by Ellen Womeldorf, the Health and Wellness Coordinator for the James City County Parks and Recreation Department. The top four overall were Dennis Welch, 32, of Virginia Beach (4:29:53), Gregory Brant, 31, of Virginia Beach (4:33:19), Brian Smith, 39, of Washington, DC (4:38:03) and Jeffrey Fitch, 45, of Carrollton (5:05:13). The leading women were Heather Gardiner, 40, of Manteo, NC (5:55:07), Margaret Sauve, 32, of Midlothian (5:58:11) and Mary Ellen Hutchins, 59, of Front Royal (6:31:10).
Local finishers were Dov Troup (7th, 5:35:41), Chris Robertson (9th, 5:38:35), Darrin Denny (11th, 5:41:42), Ramakrishna Bachimanchi (28th, 7:16:24), Jim Hopkins (29th, 7:43:47), Michael Mills (31st, 7:53:15) and Mary Gene Simmons (34th, 9:15:25). Full results, photos and a race review can be found at
http://maniac50k.wordpress.com/results/
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